Scorecard

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI v Ware on Sat 08 Jun 2013 at 1pm
Berkhamsted Cricket Club Won By 6 wickets

Match report After a long 3 weeks on the road it was good to be finally back playing at Kitchener's field. Confidence was high from last week's and the previous night's wins despite quite a few changes to the starting line-up. With half term ending, holidays, uni, call ups to the Champions Trophy and work commitments there were a number of new, young faces among the dressing room. This added extra pace to the pre-match touch rugby warm up where some of the oldies were certainly feeling the intensity. The pre-match preparations went well, the fielding drills were sharp, the bowlers were nice and loose and the batsman were timing the throw downs well. We were ready for the off.

Unfortunately there was one thing missing. The opposition. At 1-15pm we were reading the league handbook to see at what point we could claim the victory. At 1-20 pm they finally showed up with 10 men and no umpire and had the audacity to win the toss. They chose to bat which didn't overly concern us.

Following on from his spell the previous night, Josh opened up and immediately found good areas that the batsman found hard to deal with. He was well supported by Andy, the one-time saviour of Berko cricket circa 2003, who kindly chose to bowl into the wind. There was quite a strong breeze which I blame on the extra zip missing from his bowling. Definitely couldn't have been his age given he was born the same year as the captain. Both bowlers kept it tight and the score board was moving slower than Larry in the outfield. The pressure was building and we got our rewards when Andy had their opener trapped LBW. Josh picked up a wicket at the other end and we were looking good to rattle through them. Runs were hard to come by as a change of bowling saw James and Brownie really apply the squeeze. 4 maidens in a row and the batsman lost patience holing out to the skipper at mid-off. Wickets were steadily falling apart from their number 4 who showed some resistance despite his fellow teammates wilting like a rich tea biscuit in a hot cup of tea*.

Josh came back on for his second spell and had an immediate impact snagging a wicket. He followed that up with another 3 in a spell of genuine pace despite tiredness towards the end of his longish spell. He demonstrated how to bowl at tail-enders pitching the ball full and straight and we were all delighted for him to pick up his maiden Michelle for the first team. If he bowls like that I predict much great things from the young man. In all it was a good fielding display despite a few drop catches (although most were only half chances) and great to see Ted and Harvey adding enthusiasm and energy to the field.

So with 118 needed to win the game it was time for the captain to put his feet up and watch the guys canter home. Although that what I would have like to have done. Larry nicked off early to a ball going a yard down leg side and with Jez looking in good touch, Ollie ran him out. It was a curious incident which saw a lovely on drive by Jez brilliantly fielded by Ollie’s foot at the non-strikers end. Both batsman ended up at the same end with Ollie blaming the concrete in his spikes as to why he was still stationary in his crease and couldn’t make the trip back to the pavilion. Luckily only a few people heard the captain’s outburst at this point but there was no mistaking the crash, bang, wallop of Jez’s bat, gloves, helmet etc going flying in the dressing room. Ollie further endeared himself to his new teammates but running out his younger brother Ted who had looked incredibly assured for his debut in the 1s. That made it 2 run outs for the match and 11 in all for the season. I’m not entirely sure why we are so rubbish at calling this season.

Anyway the skipper went out once more to settle the nerves and bat a sensible knock which included a number of very late cuts/edges and one glorious cover drive to win the game. To be fair to Ollie after running out two of his teammates he did knuckle down and see the match home. A good win by 6 wickets but we shouldn’t get complacent. The last two teams have been poor. We will come across stronger opposition. Man of the match goes to Josh for a fine spell of bowling.

For those that hung around for the evening festivities were treated to the club’s annual race night. A fun evening but all I would say is don’t listen to Larry when it comes to betting on horses.


*Joke taken from Peter Kay's live tour 2003

Ware Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
4w 3b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
8
117 (48.4 overs)		     
Tom Parker lbw  P Brown 4 43 9.30
Graeme Unwin lbw  A Owen 1 17 5.88
James Hopkins b  J Roberts 9 23 39.13
Stuart Hitch Not Out  67 102 8 4 65.69
Garry Orton ct  D Smith b J Wyatt 11 43 2 25.58
Phil Macmurdie b  J Wyatt 4 13 1 30.77
Jamie Drew b  J Roberts 2 21 9.52
Shashi Guyanath lbw  J Wyatt 1 8 12.50
Gayan Thembiliyagoda b  J Roberts 1 7 14.29
Nathan Adam b  J Roberts 9 14 2 64.29
Afzal Hussein lbw  J Roberts 0 1 0

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joshua Roberts15.463356.602.11
Andy Owen11.0130130.002.73
Phil A 'Brownie' Brown9.0428128.003.11
James Wyatt13.052237.331.69

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
8nb 6w 4b 1lb 
for 4 wickets
19
118		        
Jez O'Neill run out  (N Adam) 17 25 3 68.00
Larry Eaton ct  sub b G Thembiliyagoda 0 2 0
Ollie Chinneck Not Out  45 85 5 52.94
James Wyatt lbw  P Macmurdie 18 28 3 64.29
Ted Stanford run out  ( sub) 6 17 1 35.29
David Smith Not Out  13 14 2 92.86 1
Gareth Preedy  
Joshua Roberts  
Andy Owen  
Phil A 'Brownie' Brown  
Harvey Lewis  

Ware Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nathan Adam6.002000.003.33
Gayan Thembiliyagoda7.0024124.003.43
Phil Macmurdie9.5243143.004.37
James Hopkins5.002600.005.20

  • Umpire :
    Richard
  • Scorer :
    Sarah